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Lone Star Bulldog Club Rescue

Ida Claire

Age: 2 Yr2. Old

Gender: Female

Adoption Fee: $700

Special Needs: no

  • Tolerant of children
  • Tolerant of dogs
  • Tolerant of cats

Adopt a Bulldog

Ida Claire

I am a 4-month-old beautiful girl. My family loved me to death and wanted to keep me with all their hearts. But I was born with inverted lady parts, which caused me to suffer from a chronic UTI most of my life. The infected urine caused blistering and swelling, so my family needed some help. I went to the vet many times, but nothing could get the infection under control. My family felt hopeless and wanted to get me the help I needed, so they called rescue.

Dr. Larsen put me on a strong medication and now they’re doing laser treatments for the swelling. I’m already feeling so much better, but we’re taking it one day at a time right now. I’m sure I’ll be running and playing again, soon.

I hope you like my Valentine’s Day pictures! Keep watching for me. I’ll be back with an update soon!

2/26/20 Update:  Ida Claire had a second surgery this week to repair damage to her vulva. Before she came to rescue, she unfortunately spent a lot of time sitting in urine, so the flesh both inside and outside were badly scalded. This caused the vulva to become inverted, so Dr. Larsen did surgery Tuesday to correct the problem. Thank you to our supporters for allowing us to care for her!

She is so ready to be set free from the cone of shame!

3/23/20 Update:  Foster girl Ida Claire is ready for a virtual happy hour. Raising our glasses for our restaurant, grocery and health care workers, as well as all the delivery drivers! Thank you for helping us. Ida Claire is enjoying this stay at home directive.  Not quite sure she understands social distancing though…….

6/30/20 Update:  Ida Claire is one of the sweetest and most loving dogs that we have ever had the pleasure of fostering. She loves everything, and gets along wonderfully with everyone. She is 9 months old and has the most beautiful, soulful and expressive eyes. For the past few months, we have been observing her and working on her medical needs.

A few weeks ago, Ida was being a puppy and slightly injured her back leg from playing. This resulted in her being on crate rest for 4 weeks. She has not enjoyed her time in “jail” and not getting to play with her best friends. She doesn’t think this is fair. Thankfully, it looks like the anti-inflammatories and crate rest are working and letting her leg heal! Just one more week to go of rest.

As you might remember, when she came into rescue, she had a lot of damage on her back end due to severe urine scalding. Dr. Larsen said it was the worst she had ever seen. She did some reconstructive surgery to remove excess skin and deteriorated flesh. The original hope was that, once her anatomy was reconstructed and she was properly tended to, all her issues would be behind her. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like it’s going to be that easy for Ida.

After we got her all healed from the surgeries, we noticed that she leaks urine and that her urine is extremely strong in odor. She is not fully incontinent. She is potty trained and will go to the door or bark to be taken outside to pee and poop, but she still leaks and cannot control the leakage.

We have tried a few different medications to see if it would help, but so far, nothing has shown a significant improvement. Due to her leakage, she is diapered in the house. This is what’s best for her overall health and also for sanitary reasons. She gets diaper-free time every time she goes outside to play or take care of her business. She adjusted very quickly and is easy to diaper and change. I was just alerted to some new designer diaper covers with ruffles that alumna Valentine Rose recently received, so I will be purchasing a set for Ida Claire and also for her fellow diapered foster sister, Jane Bennet.

I wish I could report that diapering Ida would also be a great solution to all of her medical needs, but unfortunately, that is not the case.

As I said earlier, her urine is extremely strong and potent and actually still burns her, both externally and internally.

We’ve tried several supplements trying to adjust the pH and acidity, and so far nothing has helped and it’s time for her to see a specialist. We just don’t know why she leaks or why her urine is so strong. We’re hoping that the specialist can determine the cause and create a treatment plan to help Ida live her best, pain-free life. As everyone knows, specialists are not cheap and that doesn’t change just because Ida is a rescue. Her appointment is set for next Friday, July 3.

Even with all of this, Ida is still the sweetest little girl and loves to be held and give kisses. And, did I mention food? Ida LOVES food. Any kind, any time of day, Ida is ready for a snack. She knows where the treat jar is and will knock anyone out of the way for a treat. She also will make a scene if she can’t be right next to the dinner table when we are eating. She has cleanup to do, just in case a crumb happens to drop. She is an absolute joy.

8/2/20 Update:  Wow, what a day! It has been a long one, but we now have a plan and know a bit more about what is going on with sweet Ida.

Her current diagnosis is bi-lateral eptopic uereters tunneling into the urethra. She also has stones in her bladder and an active infection that is resistant to most antibiotics. They are still waiting on the final urine culture to decide what antibiotic and delivery method to use to fight the infection.
The current plan is for Ida to undergo a cystoscopy in the morning to repair both uereters and look at the inside of the bladder. They will use the scope and a laser to detach and move her uereters to where they should be and also to look around her bladder.
Once in there, depending on how her bladder looks, they may decide to to do a debridement (cleaning out) of her bladder wall/lining to remove any hiding spots for the bacterium and infection to continue to grow. They also will remove or laser any stones they can.
Going forward, she will need a prescription diet. They can’t determine yet if she will leak urine after the repair and healing process. Some dogs still leak, but it can be managed with medication. Some no longer leak and some continue to leak even with medication. We will not know until she has recovered. At the very least, she will leak significantly less than she currently does and the urine will be properly filtered.
After this procedure tomorrow, she will be more anatomically correct. She should have far less infections and stones going forward and her quality of life will be vastly improved, which is the most important thing!
Everyone already has fallen in LOVE with Ida at the A&M clinic. She is getting lots of extra attention and care, and is being monitored around the clock. She has quickly become their favorite patient. In the last update, they told me they are taking turns loving on her and comforting her. We should be able to pick her back up on Wednesday.
8/4/20 Update:  Sometimes when we have a plan for things, things do not go according to plan because of the unknown.  This is the situation that was presented today for Ida Claire.
Unfortunately, they were not able to do the laser ablation and uereters repairs as we had anticipated.  We knew this was a possibility because we knew she still had an infection.  What we didn’t know was just how bad the infection was, the degree of internal inflammation, the condition of her bladder and urethra and the complexity of her anatomical abnormalities.
As they started her procedure and performed the scope (cystoscopy) they quickly discovered that she is very anatomically complex and that her bladder and especially urethra are in bad shape.  They knew immediately that it would not be safe to open her up with the laser to correct the uereters.  Ida had lots of inflammation and infection, loose sediment and internal tissue damage.  Because of the floating sediment and inflammation they were only able to locate one uereter.  They removed as much of the infection, crystals and sediment as they could and then flushed her out twice.  The area in the worst condition is the urethra which is the hardest area to treat.

 

During the procedure they filled and plugged her bladder with antibiotics.  The antibiotics will stay in her bladder for 2hrs and then they will drain them out with a catheter.  They will repeat this treatment again tomorrow morning.  They are currently working with the microbiologist to decide what medication(s) to send her home with.  There is a concern that she is also MRSA P which adds a little more to the equation but it will be addressed and treated.

They have determined that is best that she stay hospitalized until Thursday.  She had a little bit of difficulty waking up from anesthesia and appeared in pain.  They acted quickly to get her pain under control and managed. During my last check-in with them she was lightly sedated but resting comfortably.

Her new estimate for today’s procedure and hospital stay has increased to $5,000.

In addition to the above $5,000 for this week’s treatment, if you remember at the start of this update I said that they were unable to make the anatomical repair that she needs. This means that she will need to return in a few weeks for that repair procedure once we have this infection better under control.  The estimate for that procedure is between $5,000-$6,000.

Ida is only 11months old and is the sweetest girl with the most beautiful eyes and gentle souls.

9/12/20 Update: Ida is still leaking some and being diapered. However, it’s NOWHERE near what it was. The bad smell is gone and the exterior looks good. It’s not constantly “damaged” like before, but she does have some leakage after the repair, which we knew was a possibility.

We are giving it another two weeks because she had so much done for the repair. She actually didn’t leak for three days, but they cautioned me that it could be due to the swelling from the procedure and it appears it was.
If she is still leaking in two weeks, we will try some bladder control medications, now that she is more anatomically correct. There are two medications we can try, starting with Proin.

10/22/20 Update:  She took a quick visit to see Dr. Larsen last week for a urine culture and it was all clear! This is awesome news for Ida and tells us that we are on the right path and made the best decisions for her with her previous procedures.

She still gets external irritation and will always need to be cleaned and medicated to manage that situation and minimize her pain and discomfort. Like I previously mentioned, she does still have urine leakage and is still diapered. We have started Proin and will give it a little bit more time before we try the next control medication. What we were most hopeful for was that we could at least reduce the chronic and severe UTIs and it looks like we have been successful in that at this point in time.
We have discovered that buying her prescription dog food can be quite the adventure! If you don’t know, prescription dog food is apparently a hot commodity and if you don’t have the necessary forms filled out, I’s dotted and T’s crossed, they will not sell it to you at the retail pet stores even with the prescription. No worries… Chewy.com will deliver.
Ida is still a very sensitive girl and dare I say, a bit dramatic. You can tell instantly if she is in any discomfort. I’ve said it before, but I really do think she is hyper-sensitive to pain. It just breaks your heart the way she will look at you when she is uncomfortable.
Her allergies have flared up a little in the past few weeks, making her ears a little sensitive and she had a bit of an external irritation/sores in her girly parts. That combo made for an upset Ida for about a week and half. Today, she was feeling much better after some cleaning and medicating so she had some outside playtime with her best friends. She is loving this cooler weather.
She loves her toys. She also loves to share and wants all the dogs to chew on a bone or play with a toy with her. It’s the cutest thing. And when they take the toy or bone away from her, she just looks at them like she doesn’t understand. Every now and then, one of the other dogs will indulge and chew on a bone with her.
8/9/21 Update:  Ida Claire is continuing to do great in her foster home.  A few weeks ago she had her annual exam with Dr Larsen and got all up to date on her vaccines.  As much as she loves Dr Larsen and all of the clinic staff, she did not enjoy her visit and required 2 days of love and doting following the appt.  As I have said before, Ida is a very sensitive girl.  During her visit we had to do a urine culture to see how everything is looking.  Dr Larsen and I were both a little worried about the color of the sample collected but thankfully the report came back good and showed no growth of bacterias!!!!!!  Very concentrated but clean which is amazing for Ida.  She still battles with external irritation and some discomfort there but thankfully things are looking good internally.  Ida does still leak urine and most likely always will.  We tried some of the bladder control medications but they just don’t seem to help.  She does also continue to eat a prescription diet for urinary tract health and she will need that for the rest of her life.  She wears a diaper for the leakage and is perfectly content wearing it.  Recently though, her diapers have become a little snug.  Dr Larsen mentioned the D word and Ida was not happy.  She likes to eat and it brings her great joy as it does me.  Anyways, I made a deal with Ida that we would both work on loosing a few pounds that we’ve picked up this year.  We had a little gathering this weekend for my son’s soccer team and Ida thought the boys were all there for her.  She loved all the people and just went from person to person until she wore herself out and just had to go lay down……about 5mins later.